The Bern “Zibelemärit,” aka Onion Market, is a one-day festival in late November celebrating the onion harvest. Over 200 market stands fill the old town streets, selling beautiful onion braids and other onion paraphernalia.
This year: Mon 24 November 2025
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know to enjoy the Bern Zibelemärit!
Quick info
| Event | Bern Zibelemärit |
| Date: | Mon 24 Nov 2025 from 6:00 am |
| Location: | Bern old town |
| More info: | bern.com |
1. When to visit the Bern onion market
The Bern Onion Market is held on the last Monday of November. The market stands officially open at 6:00.
Some die-hard onion fans arrive before the market opens to get the best onion braids. But this is not necessary! You can still get beautiful onion braids later in the morning.
We arrived around 10:00 and the party was going strong, hundreds of onions braids on sale everywhere. We did not miss out at all.
However, you should definitely go in the morning, ideally around 9:00. By about 13:00, things were winding down and many sellers packing up.
2. How to get there
Because of the crowds, you should travel to the Bern onion market via public transportation.
Note that some Bern tram lines are closed or re-routed during the onion market. This includes trams 6, 7, 8, and 9 and bus line 12. So if you are local to Bern, you may need to take a different route. Check the actual schedule on SBB.ch.
By train
Take a train to Bern, Bahnhof. Here are some sample times from main cities:
- from Zurich – 1h
- from Lucerne – 1h30
- from Basel – 1h
- from Geneva – 2h
Note that these trains may be very crowded during morning commute times (6:30-9:00), so arrive to the station early or make a seat reservation if you want to sit with your group.
When you exit the Bern train station, follow the crowds and/or look for signs to Zytglogge or Spitalgasse.
By car
You can see the current Bern parking situation on this website: www.parking-bern.ch
I’d try for City-West Parking (Effingerstrasse 20, 3011 Bern), which has direct access to a freeway exit. It’s about a 10 min walk to the market.
The closest parking would be at the Bern train station, but it might be difficult to get there with the road closures and crowds.
3. Where to go (with map)
Not one website I looked at provided a map, nor is one provided on site. The official website says “There are no official program points at the Zibelemärit. If you want to be swept away by the Bernese way of living, it is best to go into the hustle and bustle and let the Märitstimmung (market atmosphere) take effect on you.”
On our first time, we had no idea where to go and just followed the crowds walking from the train station. This strategy will work if you are a relaxed person that likes to go with the flow.
But honestly, we felt a little disoriented since we’re not super familiar with Bern. We took lots of wrong turns and ended up on empty streets that weren’t part of the festival. I was concerned about missing out on important parts of the festival if I didn’t walk down all the streets. I would have really liked a map like the one below, that just told me where to focus my time.
I also thought about families, which have a short window when the kids are interested. You can’t waste your time and energy wandering around trying to find the main event.
Market map!
If you like to be prepared like me, here’s an unofficial map highlighting where most of the market stands are. This may be slightly different when you are there.
The market is in the old town, centered on the big plazas: Bärenplatz, Bundesplatz, Waisenhausplatz, and Kornhausplatz. Stands also like the main street cutting through the old town, Spitalgasse and Märktgasse, passing under the famous clock tower. Stands spill into streets adjacent to these areas, including Zeughausgasse, Neuengasst, and Aabergergasse.
4. What to buy
Most people come to buy onion braids for themselves and as gifts. Best to bring cash as not all vendors take cards. I would budget about CHF 30 – 100 for your onion purchases, CHF 20/pp for food and drink, CHF 10 for confetti.
Onion braids
The onion braid is the most common and traditional product available at the Zibelemärit. You’ll find them in all shapes and sizes, from 10cm to over 1 meter long.
The prices range from about CHF 10 to over CHF 100 for the longest braids. For the average braid, expect to pay about CHF 15-20. Prices vary widely and some vendors will negotiate on price for bulk purchases or at the end of the market day.
Our main advice is to not shop around too much before making a decision. If you find something you like, just buy it. The best ones do sell out and it’s difficult to make it back to previous stands you loved.
We also found that some customers are unnecessarily aggressive. There are plenty of onions to go around and no one needs to push and shove at the stands. But some people seemed to act like this was their territory and out-of-town window shoppers weren’t welcome in their opinion. Maybe I’m reading into it though.
Garlic & onions
We loved the braids that incorporated garlic bulbs, which gave a nice contrast with the white color and more variety to the flavors. Braids with garlic are not as popular, so you’ll have to search a little harder to find these.
Dried flowers & onions
Most onion braids included some dried flowers. But some onion creations are more dried flowers than onions. We quickly found ourselves searching for stands with a higher flower-to-onion ratio. These seem to sell more quickly. So if you find one you like, buy it then and don’t think you can go back and buy it later.
Onion wreaths
These were my favorite and a bit difficult to find. I really regretted not buying the first beautiful one I saw. I kept looking for a better one and realized that the wreath form is a bit unusual at the market.
Shallots
We were delighted to find these little shallot braids, a rare find at the market. This is high on my shopping list for this year.
Onion characters
Many stands sell figures made out of onions, mostly animals and comical characters. It wasn’t really into it, but they seemed to be quite popular.
These onion shaped cookies seemed like a better gift for a kid. I think they are decorated lebkuchen.
5. What to wear
This is November, so you should bundle up and dress appropriate to the forecast, hats and gloves recommended. The market happens in all weather, so don’t let the rain stop you. Just bring an umbrella and plan for a shorter visit.
Here are a couple fun accessories that you can buy at the market.
Candy necklaces
Most people were wearing these brightly colored candy necklaces. They are inexpensive and sold all over the market. I didn’t find them a required part of the experience. But it’s an easy way to feel part of the festivities.
They seem reminiscent of Mardi Gras beads, but I haven’t been able to find any more info about them. Perhaps the same New Orleans tradition applies in terms of showing something to strangers to get some???
Onion headband
We saw a few people wearing onion headbands and went on the hunt to find them. We only found two stands selling them, so snap them up if you find them. I kept debating and bought mine near the end of our market time, big mistake!
The joy is wearing the headband during your market visit, so buy it early on. I only wore it a few times back home.
These would make a great gift for any little girlie in your life that likes to dress up.
6. How to have fun – confetti!
An unexpected part of the festival was the playful confetti fights. Right as you enter the market, there are many stands selling bags of confetti, similar to Fäscnacht celebrations. They also sell little plastic confetti “guns” that make it easy to shower strangers with lots of confetti.
You should 100% load up on confetti and get a confetti gun. We had so much fun with these even without children in tow.
Kids at the festival spend a lot of energy having confetti fights with strangers. It’s lighthearted and joyful.
Warning! We found confetti in our clothes, shoes, backpacks, hats, and in weird places in our homes for the whole next year. I had fun with my friends posting pics to our group chat when we would find another bit of confetti somewhere funny.
Vendors also sell little plastic hammers that people use to bop strangers on the head, often as retaliation for throwing confetti. This is not my favorite, but just give in and have a fun attitude.
7. What to eat at the market
Based on the marketing, I was expected all sorts of onion flavored food items. I was promised onion tarts, onion soup, onion pizza and sausage with onions. We looked everywhere and found very few onion foods around the market.
Although the market has lots of food stands, most are regular market food like sausages, raclette, etc. We found the most onion-related food in Bärenplatz and Bundesplatz. But it might be different when you go.
Here’s what we did find and eat…
Onion tart
A few vendors, mostly French speaking, were serving onion tarts like the one shown below. These seemed to sell out quickly, as we saw a few vendors with tart signs but no more tarts for sale. You can buy a piece or whole tart for later. They warmed ours up, which I definitely recommend. It’s a greasy mess, but tasty.
Onion bread
We found a couple vendors selling a version of garlic bread with an onion paste. Not bad.
Onion soup
I thought this would be the most obvious and prevalent onion food item at the market. We only found one vendor selling onion soup and it was already sold out at 10:30. Get it while it’s hot!
Drinks
You’ll find lots of mulled wine stands throughout the market. All food stands sell water and soda. You can also stop at a grocery like Migros or Coop to get less expensive drinks. I suggest bringing a water bottle with you.
Bern-specific treats
If you don’t live in Bern, you might enjoy eating non-onion related treats that are specific to Bern. For example, these bear shaped almond cakes, apparently a traditional treat here.
8. Lunch indoors
You can make a pretty good lunch out of the market stands. But if you want to warm up inside and rest your legs, you might want to eat at a restaurant. It’s a little harder than you might think.
The official website said the nearby restaurants would serve “an array of onion-based dishes.” I saw no evidence of that. In fact, we found that most restaurants were closed, as they typically are on Mondays.
Any restaurant, cafe, coffee shop, etc. that was open was completely packed. Reservations are highly recommended.
We ended up at Ristorante Luce, recommended by literally every Bern local I’ve spoken to, which had pretty good pizza. We didn’t have to wait too long because we didn’t eat until 15:00. Zeughausgasse 28, 3011 Bern near Waisenhausplatz.
For this year, we searched for hours for a good lunch place for our little group of friends. We found that either they were very expensive (CHF 50+ for lunch) or closed. I really wanted to eat at Kornhauskeller because it’s such a beautiful space. But the prices just seemed to high for a casual after-market lunch. We decided no sit down lunch this time.
9. Toilets
On our last visit, there were a few portable toilets at Bundesplatz, in front of the Swiss National Bank (see on map). We also found toilets at Ringeepark at the far northeastern corner of the market. This park had a drink stand and a couple amusements for children.
You could also use toilets at department stores in the old town. Loeb Warenhaus (Spitalgasse 47-51, 3001 Bern) is near the main train station, with entrances on Spitalgasse and Schauplatzgasse. The department stores seemed to tolerate this and didn’t charge for the toilets. But I’m positive did not appreciate the tons of confetti streamed across their sales floors by non-customers.
Also, Loeb is a huge store and we spent way too long taking a bunch of escalators in all directions to reach the toilet. Good luck!
Other stores that have toilets:
- Migros Supermarket – Marktgasse 46, 3011 Bern
- Coop City Bern Ryfflihof – Aarbergergasse 53, 3011 Bern
